Win 2003 Server + Exchange 2003

[Confused]

Hi all,

Am in the process of setting up a new 2003 Server, and am awaiting Exchange to be ordered/delivered.

Due to builder/management/finance screw-ups, I've been left just a few days to get everything set up ready for a department to move back to their newly refurbished area, and only have AD set up and installed on the system. Exchange has still to be processed and paid for (this is the finance screw-up) so it's looking doubtful that Exchange will be delivered before the system needs to go live.

My question here is whether it is possible to install Exchange after the server/user accounts are set up, and will it be able to create mailboxes/settings automatically for users on AD, or would Exchange users need to be set up individually once installed?

Thankfully there are only 20 users to go on the system, but as you can imagine, I'd prefer to have those users set up automatically rather than having to do it manually!


Thanks in advance.


Confused

 

[spyordie007]

Yes, once Exchange has been installed into the organization you can select all the users at once in the Active Directory Users and Computers msc and enable their accounts for email through Exchange. You could also script this (if you had hundreds of users this would become useful), but in your case through the msc would probably be easiest.

-Erik

 

[stash]

I would just add that, if at all possible, you should install Exchange on a separate server from the DC.

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: STaSh
I would just add that, if at all possible, you should install Exchange on a separate server from the DC.

I know this is preferred. However the unit has no more than 20 PCs and 20 users, and the server is a Xeon 2.8, so plenty of power. It's nice to get them across to a AD and XP computers and away from 98 systems and a single 2000 workstation holding their data! I think seperate servers for DC and Exchange is pushing it!

Originally posted by: spyordie007
Yes, once Exchange has been installed into the organization you can select all the users at once in the Active Directory Users and Computers msc and enable their accounts for email through Exchange. You could also script this (if you had hundreds of users this would become useful), but in your case through the msc would probably be easiest.

-Erik

Thanks, Erik. I thought this should be possible, but knowing Microsoft I would have hunted for hours to find how to do it!


Thanks for your help so far guys

 

[stash]

Its not so much about the power of the server as much as redundancy and disaster recovery. But I understand budgets are tight

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: STaSh
Its not so much about the power of the server as much as redundancy and disaster recovery. But I understand budgets are tight

And simplicity.

Sometimes when you have a ton of interdependent servcies running on one server it can make for confusing troubleshooting when issues arise.

Not that I'm saying you wont be fine with the one server.

This also brings up an issue you'll undoubtedly run in to so might want to keep in mind. I dont remember what the services are but with Server 2003 AD and Exchange 2003 on the same server there are some AD services that shutdown before the Exchange services and than Exchange takes forever to shutdown as it has to time everything out before finally shutting down. The "fix" is to stop the Exchange services manually before shutting down/restarting the server.

-Erik

EDIT: Linkified